I awoke to screams
by Josh whalen
Summary: read about the hardships of the zombie apocolypse, like lawless men, zombies, and tragic demises.


I woke up to screams. I sat up in bed and looked out my window. There was a pitched battle being fought in the courtyard of the apartment I'm living in. SWAT and military troops were trying to run away from a large crowd of civilians, most of which were bearing horrific wounds. Judging by my two decades of service with the USMC as a field medic, most of them should be dead right now, yet they still walked. I scrambled into my leather vest, trousers, and combat boots. I also strapped a pistol holster onto each of my hips. I shoved a .357 magnum into one holster and an M9 into the other. I had a feeling that I would need them.

I took my military rucksack and filled it with food, ammo, and other necessities. I peeked out of the window to check the battle. nearly everyone was dead yet walking or being eaten alive. They must be zombies, I thought to myself. Luckily, I was on the top floor of the apartment, so I had easy roof access. i ran up onto the roof, only to find three zombies eating an old lady. I charged into the group, knocking the first one off of the roof, and the other two stumbled but soon regained balance. They started shuffling after me. i looked around for an extra weapon, not wanting to waste ammo. I spotted a rusted steel pipe, so i picked it up and used it to bash in the second zombie's head. I shoved the pipe into the chest of the third zombie and backed it up to the edge of the roof. I gave the zombie a shove with the pipe and a kick to the chest, so it fell off of the roof.

I secured the roof as best as I could. I dumped debris into the doorway untill no one could get through. I searched the rooftop for supplies and found a woodcutting axe and a hunting knife. I saw a figure climb up the fire escape. I drew my .357 magnum and waited. "Who are you?" I shouted at the figure. "Dave." it shouted back. I holstered my .357 magnum and gestured for Dave to come over to where I stood. I examined dave for the first time. He wore black jeans and a hoodie. Draped over his agile form were belts that carried things that he might need on short notice, like a flashlight, a water bottle, plenty of ammo for various weapons, and a small hatchet. "Nice gear." I told him. "Thanks." he said. I peered over the edge of the building that we were on and nearly threw up at the sight below. most of the zombies left in the courtyard were too damaged to go anywhere in the condition they were in. I threw myself backwards and vomited. I wiped my mouth on my sleeve, and stood up. "So, what's your name?" Dave asked me. "Joe." I replied curtly. "so what are we going to do about all them?" Dave said as he gestured towards the zombies below. "I'm going to find my parents and my girlfriend. If you want to stay here, be my guest. If not, lets get moving." we climbed down the fire escape, swearing profoundly whenever it groaned beneath us. the zombies noticed us about halfway down the fire escape. they all gathered around the bottom of the escape. I jumped as far as I could and landed with a thud. Dave landed beside me. We both sprinted around the living landmines (the zombies that couldn't move) towards the parking lot. "Do you have a car?" I panted as we ran. "No, do you?" Dave replied. "Yeah, follow me!" I shouted as I turned sharply to the left. we reached my Ford F-150 and climbed in. I started the truck as the zombies from the courtyard shambled towards us. It took us 15 minutes to drive to my girlfriend's house. As we got out of the truck, I heard some moaning from inside the house. "No, no, no, this can't be happening!" I said as we ran towards the house. I kicked in the door and glanced inside. The door to the master bedroom was blocked by a dresser with a small group of zombies clustered around it. Soft crying could be heard from the other side of the barricade. I roared and charged at the zombies, pipe in hand. i shoved through the whole group and accidentaly knocked the dresser away from the door. I turned and started smashing heads. A zombie grabbed me and forced me to the ground and tried to bite me. It nearly succeded but Dave stabbed it under the jaw with a six-inch knife from his makeshift combat harness. I shoved the dead zombie off of me and got to my feet. I examined the battlefield and to my suprise there was only one zombie left, the rest were dead, scattered around the living room. I grabbed my knife and stabbed it in the eye. I got to my feet and walked over to the bed, where Dave was comforting a young woman that I instantly recognized as my girlfriend, Hanna. "Joe!" she squealed happily as she wrapped herself around me. I smiled as I hugged her back. "Touching." Dave said softly. "What, you got a problem with it?" I growled. "No, I'm just fine." he replied. "Hanna, are you hurt?" I asked. "No, just really scared and confused." she said back. We all got back into the truck and started driving towards my parents' house. About halfway there we were stopped by some men at a roadblock. "Give us your money, guns, ammo, keys, and the girl. Then you can be on your way." One man said. I counted out how many men there were. I counted 15, all with assult rifles of various types. "we can't win this fight. now without being injured or killed." I whispered to Dave. "we'll just have to try." he whispered back. "No." I shouted at the men as I got out of the truck. "what did you say?" the first man said as he walked towards me. "I said no. Is that too many words for you?" When I finished talking, the man hit me in the side of the head with the stock of his AK-47. I fell to the ground and felt the side of my head. I felt blood on my fingers. When the man rushed at me to hit me again, I grabbed his shirt and pulled him towards me. As he fell, I slit his throat and grabbed his AK before it hit the ground. I opened fire on the rest of the men but only killed one and injured two. As I ran to cover, Dave killed one and missed one. The men began a disorganized retreat, leaving their wounded comrades behind. One had managed to prop himself up against a crate. He was trying to stop the blood from flowing out of his shoulder where I shot him. I shot him in the head, then found his buddy trying to crawl away. I shot him too. Dave and I collected the guns and ammo. We loaded them into the truck and left. when we arrived at the house, it was in flames. There was a sign in front of the blaze. It read "These people crossed the Raiders. They have been punished.

"They must have been those men we fought." Dave said. I nodded. "We need a base." Hanna said. "She's right." I said. "When am I not?" she laughed. "options?" I said. " the football field?" Hanna suggested. "Any other ideas? I asked. No one else spoke up. "Then lets go." We drove to the high school football field. There were only a few zombies lurching around. Dave and I took our knives and went to work. I snuck up on a zombie and stabbed up into the area where the spine connects to the skull. It dropped dead. A zombie saw me and started walking towards me. I stabbed it in the eye. When we were finished, we dragged all of the bodies to the corner of the field. "We need salvaged metal and other junk to start building with, lets get searching!" I shouted to Dave. We found a couple of sledgehammers in a sheet metal shed near the field. we took the hammers and some of the metal off of the shed. We started hammering the metal into the ground like a short fence. With that done, we had fenced off the whole field using the metal and some concrete chunks that we broke off of the surrounding buildings. We left a space open for us to go through, and to bring the truck in. We parked the truck paralell to the wall and used it as a gate.

Dave and I went to the parking lot and had our pick of cars. We agreed on a red 1970 camaro with the keys still brought it inside the compound and parked it against the wall. A small swarm of zombies emerged from the surrounding area, drawn to the sound of the camaro's engine. We all grabbed guns from the back of the truck and got ready to defend. I had the AK-47 that I had taken from a raider, dave had a looted M4A1, while hanna had a looted MP5. We all had five mags each. (I had taught hanna how to use guns a few months ago) I took a few seconds to line up a headshot, but I put down at least ten zombies. Dave took out at least as many as I did, if not more. Hanna, on the other hand, wasn't as good of a shot as we were, so she only got about six. I turned to watch the sun set behind the truck, so I didn't notice a new type of zombie that sprinted up to the fence and leaped straight over, and onto my back. I fell on my face, but turned over in time to stop the zombie from biting me, as I held it back with one hand, I pulled out my M9 and shoved the barrel into the zombie's gaping mouth, and pulled the trigger.


End file.
